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Show Don’t Tell

The Advice Everyone Gives and Nobody Explains

Show Don't Tell, by Richard Lowe

Everybody said it. Nobody said what it meant.

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158 pages · Paperback ISBN 978-1-946458-55-1 · ebook ISBN 978-1-946458-94-0
158Pages 21Chapters 100+Before and after examples 1Piece of advice, finally explained

Everybody said it. Nobody said what it meant.

You are telling too much. I heard that constantly, from workshops and editors and other writers, and not once did anybody explain what it actually meant to do instead.

It seemed obvious that writing Sally felt angry was easier than describing her so a reader works it out. It is also shorter. So what exactly is wrong with it, and does the alternative not just take more words?

Telling is handing the reader your conclusions. Mark was nervous about the job interview. Showing is handing them the evidence: Mark’s palms left damp prints on his resume as he shuffled the papers for the third time, and the receptionist’s smile felt like a spotlight.

The first reports. The second lets the reader reach the conclusion themselves, which is the only way a reader ever believes anything. Telling inserts you, the writer, between the reader and the story. This book is the explanation nobody gave me.

What is inside

The distinction

  • What telling actually is
  • What showing actually is
  • Why the difference matters to a reader
  • When telling is the right choice, which is more often than you were told

Techniques

  • Character description without a catalogue
  • Strong verbs doing the work of adverbs
  • Emotion shown rather than named
  • Sensory detail that earns its place

Dialogue

  • Telling inside dialogue, which nobody warns you about
  • Showing through what characters say and avoid saying
  • Attribution and the said-bookism trap
  • Subtext, and how it is built

Common failures

  • Info dumps and how to break them up
  • Backstory delivered as a lecture
  • Filter words that hold the reader at arm’s length
  • Overcorrecting, and the purple prose that follows

Who this is for

Worth your time if

  • You have been told you tell too much and left to work out the rest
  • You want examples rather than principles
  • You are revising a draft that feels flat and cannot see why
  • You want to know when telling is correct

Not for you if

  • You want a full fiction craft course
  • You already apply this deliberately
  • You want literary theory
  • You are looking for plot or structure advice

Why me

Richard Lowe, the Writing King

I have written 113+ books under my own name and ghostwritten 54+ more, and I spent years being told I was telling too much without anyone explaining the fix. This is the explanation I had to assemble myself, with the examples I wish somebody had shown me.

Questions people ask

What does this book teach?
Techniques professional writers use to transform flat prose into compelling fiction. How to replace emotional announcements with physical responses, reveal character psychology through behavior instead of explanation, and create sensory-rich scenes that pull readers in.
Is this just another “show don’t tell” lecture?
No. Most writing advice tells you what to do without explaining how. This book gives you step-by-step examples showing exactly how to convert weak telling into powerful showing, plus the diagnostic skills to spot and fix flat passages in your own work.
Does the book cover when telling is better?
Yes. Not every sentence needs to be shown. You’ll learn when strategic telling works better and why, the balance that separates amateur from professional prose.
What genres does this apply to?
All fiction genres. Romance, thriller, fantasy, literary fiction, these techniques work across the board.
What skill level is this for?
Writers at any level who want to improve their prose. Each chapter builds on the last, from basic showing techniques through advanced methods like layered subtext and environmental storytelling.

Also in Writing

The Blog-to-Book Blueprint

Turning an Archive Into a Book That Holds

Give the reader the evidence

They are better at drawing conclusions than you think.

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Paperback and ebook.

Filed underWritingWriting CraftFiction WritingWriting Lessons

A chapter

Show Don’t Tell

“The emotion, the ecstasy of love, we cannot describe, but we can repeat the words and cadences in which we find it.”, Robert Frost

Rachel’s romance novel had been rejected with surgical precision: “Maya feels like an emotional robot following romance software. She announces she’s falling in love, but I can’t feel it happening. Neither will readers.”

Two years crafting this manuscript. The scene that had triggered this literary execution was supposed to be her book’s beating heart. Maya’s realization that she’s falling for the architect renovating her grandmother’s Victorian house:

Maya suddenly realized she was falling in love with Jake. The overwhelming feeling hit her as she watched him work on the kitchen cabinets. Her heart raced with nervous excitement mixed with terror. This was dangerous. She’d sworn off men after her brutal divorce, but the attraction was completely undeniable.

Reading it now felt like reviewing a patient chart. Subject exhibits elevated cardiovascular activity and conflicted romantic impulses. Recommend observation for further emotional developments.

Rachel had been writing love like a medical examiner documenting symptoms. Her protagonist wandered through scenes broadcasting emotional weather updates: Currently experiencing attraction with scattered feelings of nervousness and high probability of romantic complications.

But three weeks before her deadline, hunched over romance novels that had kept her reading past sunrise, Rachel discovered the architecture that separated published authors from everyone else fighting for representation.

Those writers weren’t announcing emotions. They were engineering experiences that hijacked readers’ nervous systems and forced visceral participation.

Table of contents

Show Don’t Tell

  • What’s The Difference?
  • What is Telling?
  • What is Showing?
  • Showing Character Description
  • Strong Verbs
  • Telling In Dialog
  • Showing Using Dialog
  • Emotions
  • Avoid Info Dumps
  • Use All The Senses
  • Showing Setting and Atmosphere
  • Showing Through Point of View
  • Interiority: The Character’s Inner World
  • Showing Character Change
  • When Showing Goes Wrong
  • Purple Prose
  • Genre Applications: Show Don’t Tell Across Fiction Types
  • Finding and Fixing Telling in Your Draft
  • Appendix B: An Annotated Scene
  • Appendix: Research Resources for Writers
  • Conclusions

The Writing King

Professional ghostwriting for executives, founders, coaches, and authors who want to get the book done right. 113+ books authored. 54+ ghostwritten for clients.

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